Panel says new lanes could be flowing by 2020

When construction workers complete a dramatic $1.3 billion makeover of state Route 91 about five years from now, transportation officials hope to keep right on going, paving 15 miles of toll lanes along Interstate 15.

The Route 91 project is going to add four toll lanes through Corona, extending the 10 miles of express lanes in Orange County. And the Riverside County Transportation Commission has decided to follow that project up by building four toll lanes — two in each direction — on I-15.

Commissioners gave the $415 million follow-up project the green light last week at an annual desert retreat. The I-15 toll lanes would run from Cajalco Road on the south to state Route 60 on the north.

“We want to make sure we can keep the momentum up,” said John Standiford, commission deputy executive director. “Hopefully they will start construction immediately once the 91 project is over.”

Unclogging the major artery through Corona that connects Riverside County residents to Orange County jobs is critical, said Commissioner Rick Gibbs of Murrieta, but so is fixing I-15, “which on any given afternoon is as bad as the 91. This becomes sort of a logical progression of what’s being done on the 91.”

The regional transportation agency is preparing to start construction by year’s end or early 2014. That massive undertaking, besides constructing toll lanes, entails adding two general-purpose lanes, replacing overpasses and building a sweeping connecting ramp that will drop northbound I-15 commuters into the new Route 91 express lanes.

Like express lanes in Orange and San Diego counties, the project is being designed for car pools and toll-paying solo commuters. Route 91 construction is scheduled to wrap up by the end of 2017.

Potentially coming right on its heels, work on the I-15 toll lanes could begin in 2018 and be completed in 2020, according to a report prepared for the commission.

With the completion of both projects, Southwest County commuters would be able to maneuver into an express lane at Cajalco Road on the southern outskirts of Corona and cruise it all the way to Route 55 in Anaheim.

The projects also would set the stage for people potentially one day driving from central San Diego to Ontario in an express lane.

Twenty miles of exclusive lanes already are in place in San Diego County, between state Routes 78 and 163. The San Diego Association of Governments’ long-term plan calls for extending those lanes north to the San Diego-Riverside county line.

“We don’t want to get too far in front, think too far ahead,” Standiford said. “But San Diego has a similar facility on the I-15 now.”

As for the Riverside County I-15 project, its preliminary $415 million budget proposes financing lanes with $166 million in local Measure A sales-tax revenue, $124 million in toll revenue bonds, $1 million in interest income and a $124 million federal loan.

Commissioners decided to add only toll lanes. They rejected adding two general-purpose lanes, as that would have driven the cost to $1.3 billion, requiring $717 million from the sales tax, the report states. And completion would have been pushed back to almost 2040.